Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 2 of The Great.
From creatorTony McNamara, the second season of the Hulu original seriesThe Greatsees Catherine (Elle Fanning) succeed in her coup against Peter (Nicholas Hoult), taking the Russian throne for herself. But that’s definitely not the end of the battle, as she finds herself up against her court, her team, and even her own mother (Gillian Anderson), and she must decide whether she might actually love the husband turned prisoner who is also the father of her child.
During this interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, co-starsGwilym Lee(who plays Grigor, best friend to Peter and husband to Georgina) andBayo Gbadamosi(who plays Arkady, a loyal friend in Peter’s inner circle) talked about how much they enjoy saying “Huzzah!,” the fun in playing these roles, how much they know about where their characters are headed, the Grigor-Peter relationship, Arkady’s need for self-preservation, and the incredible costumes and sets.
Collider: I very much enjoy this show. It’s so much fun to watch all of the craziness that goes on. Could you ever have imagined that you would say “Huzzah!” so many times on one job? Does somebody keep a running counter, per season?
BAYO GBADAMOSI: No, but we should do that.
GWILYM LEE: We should do that.
GBADAMOSI: That’s a good idea.
LEE: They counted up the amount of glasses we broke during the first season and it was into the hundreds. The “Huzzah” becomes like a twitch after a while. You say it so many times that you wake yourself up in the middle of the night going, “Huzzah! Huzzah!”
GBADAMOSI: I love it because it can mean so many different things. you’re able to use it in so many different contexts, and that’s brilliant. At first, I remember when we first started shooting, it took a while to get used to saying “Huzzah!” and to feel like it was something that you would say. There’s a seamlessness to it now that’s quite fun.
Do you find that you have to actually stop from saying it in real life because people will just look at you like you’re crazy?
LEE: It’s very expressive. It’s a great word to say because it can mean lots of different things. I do find myself saying it quite a lot.
These characters are all so big and bold and over the top. Do you miss playing them in between seasons, or is it a character that you’re happy to pack away and take a bit of a break from?
LEE: I really look forward to the opportunity to do it again because it is so much fun to play these parts. But then, at the same time, it’s good time to break and do something different and challenge yourself in different ways. Also, they’re not the nicest people. Grigor and Arkady have got their faults, haven’t they? They’re not massively sympathetic characters, so it’s good to walk away from that sometimes.
GBADAMOSI: You look forward to playing these characters because they’re so much fun to play and the writing is just incredible. It’s a treat to be able to work with that text. It’s also nice to have a break and have that opportunity to look forward to going back to it. It’s about balance.
Aside from maybe Catherine and Peter, the characters on this show seem like you might not get a lot of information on them and that they’ve grown and expanded as the seasons have gone on. How much did you actually know about your character and who they would be, when you first signed on to do this, and has anything really surprised you about them, since then?
GBADAMOSI: Yeah. When we started, I didn’t really know too much because they’re not based on real people. They’re entirely fictional. But I had a chat with Tony about the character, potential arcs and where it’s going, but we don’t get all of the episodes when we start filming. We get them as we go along, so it’s a constant discovery, which is quite nice. It’s nice to be surprised and to figure stuff out, along the way, with relationships and bits of history between characters that you didn’t know existed. You aren’t trying to play that in some way, it just is, and that’s quite nice about the way we make this show.
LEE: That’s the really rich thing about this season. The first season is a lot about set up and about establishing who these characters are and what this world is. But now that we know that, by the end of Season 1, we can jump straight back into the deep end in Season 2. It allowed us the opportunity, this season, to really explore some different depths to these characters and explore a bit more of the human side of it.
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Gwilym, Grigor is in a very interesting position with his wife and his best friend, which is not really a situation that you want to be in, in a marriage. Why do you think he puts up with what he does, for as long as he has? What’s it like to play someone like him and explore that?
LEE: Why does he put up with it? Because he has to, really. To stand up against someone like Peter is dangerous. He’s a petulant, dangerous, violent man, so you don’t stand up to him. But equally, he doesn’t stand up to [him] because he ultimately loves him. He loves Peter. He’s completely loyal to him. It’s not about political positioning for Grigor. It is just a matter of connection and love. That’s really put to the test in Season 2. Who is Grigor gonna choose, his wife or Peter? It’s very interesting, who he does choose in the end. That’s what I find very interesting about this show and this world. There’s no space for privacy in this court. It’s a really intense pressure-cooker situation. Everyone is living on top of each other in this very small environment. It’s very difficult to have feelings and to deal with your feelings in this world.
What do you think those two relationships say about him, as a character? How does that define him, for you?
LEE: He’s a very loyal person. He tries to be loyal to both his wife and his best friend, and that’s what puts him in this predicament. He’s got a lot of faults, Grigor, but he’s actually quite decent, in that sense. That’s one of his qualities, one of his virtues.
Bayo, what do you enjoy about Arkady and the relationship that he has with people, as he moves around among everybody?
GBADAMOSI: I feel like he’s definitely firmly in Peter’s camp, but also, I suppose he’s quite cognizant and aware of his position within that camp. Although he’s a close friend of Peter’s, he’s aware that he doesn’t necessarily have the history and lifelong friendship that’s he had with Grigor. It’s similar with the relationship that he has with his wife, Tatyana, played by Florence Keith-Roach. They’re both quite aware of that. They’re a family, so there’s an element of the choices they make being aligned with self-preservation for themselves and their family. This season was quite fun to do because you get to see a bit more of his Machiavellian side and scheming side.
This show is visually stunning, the costumes are incredible, and the set seems so detailed. What do you think would most surprise viewers, when it comes to every detail and what it takes to pull off a show like this?
GBADAMOSI: I’m such a fan of the creative team of this show. I’m constantly talking about the costumes and set design. I come to set and I’m like, “Wow, this is just incredible.” It’s amazing. With every department, just like with the actors, you come into the second season knowing the world and you may be a bit more expressive and creative in the second season. I think that’s true, across the board. Everyone in the second season really just stepped it up a notch. There’s a lot of exciting and surprising things for audiences to take in, in that regard.
LEE: It’s an incredible attention to detail. There’s a specificity that really gives this show a richness and allows you to connect with it on sight. There’s never a generic policy. There’s always something specific and particular about it. You read something in the script and don’t think too much about it, but then you turn up to set on the day that you’re shooting and they’ve created this mad, crazy, eccentric world and we’re all dressed up in these costumes with elaborate wigs on, and that’s what makes it so eccentric and brilliant. I think that’s what audiences really connect with as well.
It feels like there are so many little details on the sets, that you guys can see, but that we probably can’t even see, as the viewers, but it changes how you act or how you move.
GBADAMOSI: Definitely because it’s all there for you to interact with and play with and be a part of. That detail definitely informs the way you play. You tap into that world, very quickly and very readily because it’s all there for you to interact with. And then, the costumes and makeup and everything just informs the way you move through this space, which is lots of fun.
LEE: We’re also really encouraged to not wear these clothes as costumes, but to imagine them as our actual clothing, so we’re always in various states of undress. In some period dramas you see, everyone is very put together and the wig is perfect. Quite often, we’re not wearing our wigs. They’re just thrown on the table and we’ve got our jacket off. It creates that world of anarchy and chaos.
GBADAMOSI: There’s a lot of collaboration as well. There’s an ongoing dialogue between you and costume or makeup about what your character would be wearing in a scene and how they would be wearing it. Would they be a bit more relaxed? Would they be a bit more prim and proper? There are scenes when [Gwilym] is more relaxed and I’m more prim and proper. It speaks to Arkady wanting to climb up the ladder of power or feeling threatened quite a lot. That’s a conversation that’s constantly happening between us and costume or us and makeup. It’s nice because then you don’t feel like you’re wearing a costume. You just feel like you’re wearing your own clothes. It’s great.
Seasons 1 and 2 ofThe Greatare now available to stream at Hulu.
